CMT Blog: Videos

As we close in on football season, Kenny Chesney offers up a song and video that will be especially meaningful for players -- former and current -- and their families. Chesney played in high school, too, and if I'm not mistaken, there are some quick shots of him in a blue uniform wearing No. 7 in here. He may not have had football in his future, but he knew that the lessons he learned on the field would carry over to the real world. Like Joe Namath says, "Life is a team game ... it's the big game." Parents will tell you that it helps families spend time together, too, and they sometimes get more emotional about big games than their kids do. But for Chesney, it's about more than the game -- it's about things that kids might not even realize at the time. After watching this extended-cut video for "The Boys of Fall," those things are much easier to see.

This is the ultimate test of a singer's talent. When you strip away the bright lights, big stages and arenas full of fans, can he still blow you away with just his voice? After watching Trace Adkins do this Unplugged concert, I'd give that a big ol' yes. He sings a song that put him on the map 13 years ago, "(This Ain't) No Thinkin' Thing," plus a few new ones, and then his latest hit "This Ain't No Love Song." But his very best, and most moving performance, is one that he says is a little out of his comfort zone. It's Larry Graham's "One in a Million," and it's so, so good. All this from a man who admits he was scared to sing in public after playing the cat in a third-grade play.

She was there to sing. OK, sing and maybe show off her brand new wedding ring (a diamond band by Jonathon Arndt). But when I saw Carrie Underwood on the Today show on Friday (July 30), doing "Cowboy Casanova," then "Undo It," I was looking past the ring to the rest of the get-up. Thigh-high stockings (or were they boots?) Blouse, necktie and mini sport coat? And hair extensions? I guess becoming Mrs. Mike Fisher hasn't turned Underwood into a housewife just yet. Between songs, she told host Matt Lauer what married life is like so far. "It's a lot like dating life. It's good. We're both very busy people and understand each other's life," she said. "So we're OK with it." Fisher wasn't there because he's up in Canada teaching kids at a hockey school. And she even took a second to comment on the buzz about what will happen at the judge's table on American Idol. Everybody asks me, 'You know anything?' I know what you know. I have nothing!" she admitted.

When Clay Walker was singing on Lopez Tonight a couple of weeks ago, I was thinking that I could almost make a living out of loving him. I have felt that way since 1994, when I bought his If I Could Make a Living album. For 16 years I've been crazy about his voice. On Lopez, he did "She Won't Be Lonely Long," which is a great tune made even better with his subtle Texas twang. But what has me even more wound up is his new one, "Where Do I Go From You?" It's so him. With mandolin and steel behind him, he seems to have one-upped himself musically and vocally. He sounds like a cross between Rascal Flatts' Gary LeVox and George Strait on this one. I know that may not sound like a straight-up combination, but I swear it works.

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In Bomshel's latest video, "Just Fine," the feisty duo make a discovery that sends them on a mission to even up the score. It seems that "Donny" has been secretly dating both of the girls, so they hatch a plan that will not end nicely for this clueless Casanova. Equal parts Weekend at Bernie's and the ol' drug-the-bad-guy routine, the girls go on a spending spree with Donny's credit card that he won't soon forget. They even get him a lower-back tattoo. Ouch. That gives a whole new meaning to their album title, Fight Like a Girl.

If you think you know Michael Sarver (he finished 10th on season nine of American Idol) just as an oil rig worker, you may not know the whole story. He told USA Today that while many assumed he'd go country, he also has gospel and soul in his roots and that's kind of where his debut album ended up. In fact, one song comes right out and says his dreams stretch far beyond the country line. But as you sift through the track-by-track review from the paper, it still sounds like there are a lot of country influences going on. The ones that sound like the best bets to me are "Safe," a waltz about how he will always be your home, and "Ferris Wheel," about the weightlessness you feel when you are falling in love. Then there's "Always Surviving," which I know I will love no matter what it's about, because it was written by two of Nashville's most gifted tunesmiths, Rachel Thibodeau and Rivers Rutherford.

I feel like I just finished writing about Lee Brice's "Love Like Crazy" and now some big country band is making fun of it? That's just wrong. But I think Lady Antebellum is doing it all in good fun and it's pretty hysterical. As Charles Kelley says, Brice's song is on the radio 100 times every day, so when the band started getting parody-song requests, that one was a natural. And Kelley is a natural singing their version, "Biscuits and Gravy," on their bus in Goshen, Ind. With Dave Haywood on guitar, Kelley belts out how he wanted him some Waffle House after hanging on Lower Broadway, and that he's had bacon, he's had eggs, grits, raisin toast. But that one thing he eats like crazy is ... the biscuits and gravy. Funny, funny stuff.

This week started with some interesting weather. Our first show was in Kirksville, Mo., and the sky went nuts. We had to end the show a little early due to a tornado warning. You know it's bad when the Weather Channel mentions the city you are in by name! Ha! The bad weather followed us to Beatrice, Neb., (thankfully no tornados this time) but it held off just long enough for our show that night. After that we picked back up on the Rascal Flatts tour and took advantage of some indoor venues, first in Wichita, Kan., and then in Tulsa, Okla. It was nice to be inside, but it did present an interesting problem for me one night due to the lack of wind.

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I thought I'd outgrown songs like this. Themes of rural life, hauling hay, and God forbid, the cliché tractors. But then when I hear one, especially this new one from Rodney Atkins, "Farmer's Daughter," I'm right back where I was a couple decades ago. I buy into a classic country voice like Atkins' singing about having two strong arms, not being scared of dirt and being able to pick peaches, feed hogs and bring the cows ‘round. Sure it's a little predictable that he falls for his boss' daughter. But there are worse ways to paint a love story than one where he's on the tractor and she's on his mind. And I'm still a sucker for a good sweet iced tea delivery.

Just because you marry a guy doesn't mean you have to love him, right? You just have to love how he looks in a tux. And how well he can act like the marrying kind. That's kind of how Taylor Swift ended up walking down the faux aisle with actor Toby Hemingway in her video for "Mine." She had seen Hemingway in Feast of Love and thought he was great. Then she watched him in The Covenant and he was wearing her favorite number 13 on his sweatshirt, so that cemented the deal. Since the video shoot in Maine, the two have been seen out and about off-set, like when Swift was in Los Angeles recording some of her upcoming album, Speak Now, due Oct. 25. But during her live Ustream chat with nearly 60,000 fans on Tuesday (July 20) she admitted that the song "Mine" is NOT really about getting hitched. "It's a song that is about my tendency to run from love," she said. That's too bad for Hemingway.

Photo credit: Kevin Winter / Getty Images